Museum Collections

Popular for holidays and other celebrations, these small picture molds were used to shape gingerbread or colored sugar dough into the shape of good-luck charms, costume pictures, love allegories, or objects of everyday life. These tiny, extremely detailed cookies were called "Devisen" - which means "currency" or "exchange" - and the pastries were typically given out to children as prizes at parties. This mold corresponds to the style of those that appear in early nineteenth-century Switzerland. This object was once part of the folk art collection of Elie Nadelman (1882-1946), the avant-garde sculptor. From 1924 to 1934, Nadelman's collection was displayed in his Museum of Folk Arts, located in the Riverdale section of the Bronx. The Historical Society purchased Nadelman's entire collection in 1937.